Swarms of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’s’ Fans Sign Petition to Get Jesse Williams Removed From Show

A week after “Grey Anatomy” star Jesse Williams took to the BET Awards where he left many feeling inspired following his empowering acceptance speech for his Humanitarian Award, has a petition sprung up with signatures from thousands of angry fans who are calling for Williams’ removal from the hit Shonda Rhimes series.

Angry fans have flooded the Grey’s Anatomy social media pages in the days since Jesse Williams’ speech and many are really upset about what he had to say. Some of the commenters have said that Williams himself is racist for even bringing up the disproportionate number of Black men who are sitting in prisons across the country and the disproportionate number of Black men who are killed by police each year.

The Grey’s Anatomy fans’ outrage has even spilled over to a petition now filed on Change.org. The petition begins, “Jesse Williams spewed a racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people at the BET awards. If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised, as they should be, but there has been no consequences to Williams’ actions.”

As far as Shonda Rhimes is concerned, Jesse Williams’ BET speech got a thumbs up from her. Considering the stance of the Grey’s Anatomy showrunner, Williams’ job is probably going to be just fine. Those who threaten to boycott the show if Williams isn’t removed have mostly been ignored and likely won’t stop watching when Jesse continues his role on the hit and if they don’t, the few angry fans wouldn’t even make a dent in the ratings anyway.